mentor forever

Teachers are today’s greatest heroes. We have lots of heroes actually- sportsmen, m edia personalities, supermodels. They come, they have their 15 minutes of fame, and they go. But the popularity of teachers never wanes. My memory is teeming with beautiful thoughts about my teachers then. I have so much to say about them, especially that I was able to witness how patient and how hard working they are. Being educated in a rural public school, I know how hard the life of a teachers, and of course the ordeals that they have to bear,as they are expected then to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that, they accomplished the impossible task with flying colors. Teachers are expected to perform the peculiar dual task of inculcating knowledge while at the same time breaking down resistance to its inculcation. Many expect them to serve to a large degree as surrogate parents dealing with the emotional tangles and torments of the adolescents yea...

What I do and say are being absorbed by young minds who will echo these images across the ages. My lessons will be immortal, affecting people yet unborn, people I will never see or know. The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad. The pliable minds of tomorrow's leaders will be molded either artistically or grotesquely by what I do. Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves or murderers of the future. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow. ~~~Ivan Welton Fitzwater